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Friday, March 28, 2014

Yep, it's time for challenge #58 at Simply Create Too and although it seems like Carnival just ended, it's time to start thinking Easter and bunnies.

Here's what I did.

Pulled out the few Easter stamp sets I have and created a vertical focal point with heat embossed and watercolored images. Added texture with a stacked die cut, a multi-layered crepe paper bunny with a pom pom tail and some stitching. Still LOTSA white space.

Assuming Spring should have sprung in your neck of the woods by now, let those fun spring colors and images inspire you and simply create, too!

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Well awhile back I submitted this card for a call asking for cards inspired by a song. This one didn't get picked up but my Mom loved it! Said it's like the ones she chooses at Hallmark. Now that thrilled me ;))

Wanted to go minimalistic. A PC-generated sentiment. A stamp I love - American Arts Tulips in black on lotsa white. I made a circle mask and using the negative splattered some red and yellow Pshiitt spray ink from Kesi Art around the tulips. Voila!

Monday, March 24, 2014

I got a funny feeling in my stomach when I saw a comment on my blog "came over from Darnell's". Uh oh, better go check it out. I gasped. I ran up to get Mom to come have a look. I scrolled to the linky thingy and cried. No shit.

Ladies, I am on vacation celebrating my big 50. YEP BIG 50. (Now it's out there.) I just had the most incredible weekend in Frankenmuth, MI with seven best buddies from college - and yep, that was a few years ago - and then I think about how my word for 2014 was "hello", as in "face time with friends over a glass of wine" and how that is happening and it's only March. AND THEN I see the beautiful birthday cards you lovelies created for me and I can't believe how wonderful this world is.

I am just so darn happy!

And on my way out to lunch with Mom and Dad so I gotta go. But I will be back to admire all your beauties and consider yourselves hugged. As in, big giant hug.

Friday, March 21, 2014

Trimmed PP to fit front and adhered, careful to “center” pattern. Die cut arrow from reverse of PP and adhered. TIP: Decide
where to place sentiment and find that area on second piece of chevron PP to
enable perfect alignment of the pattern
later. Adhered washi tape strips to that area
before die cutting the Follow your Heart Kelly Purkey from Simon Says Stamp sentiment. Also die cut sentiment twice from kraft, stacked them, then adhered aligning pattern. TIP: Stacking die cuts creates shadows which allows you to use shapes cut from patterns on top of the same pattern without the shapes getting “lost” in the pattern. Added a distress inked heart for a punch.

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Forgive me in advance for giving you an earworm.... but c'mon, how genius was it of those guys to pick up on this idea and make a song out of it. In case you aren't familiar with THE fox (insert doubtful look), here ya go.

In case it's been too "lo-o-o-o-ong"... go have a watch. And come back singing, OK? Cuz of course you want to know the answer to the question...

So... THIS fox says "i'ma-i'ma-i'ma-re-ject". Made for a recent submission call honoring Mr. your-fur-is-red-so-beautiful. Not having made the cut for the mag, it's purr-fect for the current Shades of Gray challenge over at CASual Fridays. It's even donning three shades of gray with the CS, heat embossing and washi. Since they're now keeping their doors open for three weeks, I may manage to join the fun more often. Yippie-yippie-yippie-oh.

With all the rage in hand lettering these days, I mimicked it by freehand-forming a piece of wired ribbon (like stiffening twine with glue - without the gl-ue-ue-ue-ue!) The ribbon was originally yellow, just painted it black when I was done. TIP: Use temporary adhesive to help you while forming. The wire tends to have a mind of its own.

I used the stamp pictured in the lower left corner and "freestyled" my BG with Grapefruit pigment ink from Amuse Studio, stamping it once this way, then that way, then upside down... freestyle, ya know? And then I used PP to follow the sketch. Heat embossed my sentiment onto vellum and layered that on top of the bottom PP strip.

I used the stamp as a block, but you could cut the sentiments apart - versatile, eh? - and there are so many wonderful sentiments in the five sets. Take a closer look at all the MOM sets and see if some of the sentiments "speak" to you. TIP: These don't have to be for Mother's Day cards. If you notice, my card is basically of the specifically-for-Mom-but-generic-thinking-of-you variety. So I'm also joining the challenge for Mom cards at Simon Says Stamp.

Saturday, March 15, 2014

Unless you live under a rock, you've probably caught whiff of the new challenge on the block at Virginia Lu's blog called "Virginia's View".

Virginia is not only a talented cardmaker, but one of the nicest ladies out there in blogland. Where does she get her energy? I love to go on vacation with her vicariously every time they hit some cool corner of the world. And Dr. John, I just love that man's humor.

Friday, March 14, 2014

Call me weird, but I think that the good ole brown and white cow makes for a great photo opportunity. And if you can get a shot straight-on with those curious, big eyes... warms my heart. Unfortunately these beasts also drastically warm our atmosphere which could prove ugly in a couple decades (read: eat more veggies). Not to mention the assault to the nose from the "farm fumes" in the Alps in the spring when the farmers cover their pastures with a lovely cocktail of cow waste. Certainly not one of the more romantic things about spring ski trips!

But I digress. Where was I going with this? Check it.

My cardmaker heart just loves how this turned out. Lotsa white space, graphic, humorous. A free skinny font found here. A Papertrey cow fancied up a bit with an extra layer of torn brown CS. And some modern pasture. Now, who to send it to?

Join the fun at Simply Create Too for the bi-weekly challenge where it's all about "Animals". Bet there will be lots of cute ones over there in the gallery. Check it out here and then Simply Create, Too!

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

This card is so pretty with the stamping and all the circle die cuts! Those enamel dots are the perfect touch. I think that embossed vellum is going to be around for awhile, and maybe canvas and linen embellishments.

Monday, March 10, 2014

Hi. Had this tag staring at me - I'd tried some stencilling techniques on it - and decided to turn it into a card.

Boy, what didn't I do on this card? Originally it was used to stamp off a BG stamp I had stamped with acrylic paint and then splattered and edged with watered down gold paint. Then I decided to stencil on it. First I colored just the blooms through the stencil with watercolor pencils, then blended with a water brush. Then added some more accent color to the middles of the blooms. Then I sponged Distress Inks on the remainder of the stencil. Then I made some splatters with Glimmer Mist (which didn't turn out well probably due to the paint underneath?!?!). Then I colored some seam binding and vellum with Distress Ink and die cut the sentiment, also die cutting it from white CS and stacking before adhering. Scored a second tag at the top and glued to this one and tied the bow through both. It's a card.

This won't be going into an envie, but maybe onto a present packed in cellophane...

It's also going into the following challenges:
Simon Says Stamp - Tag It
A Blog Named Hero - #39 Stencils

Friday, March 7, 2014

If you're looking for the Card Creations Vol. 12 blog hop,please scroll down or click here.

Well it's March which theoretically should mark the approach of Spring. I realize many of you have had ENOUGH of winter. We never actually got it here in Germany. But the birds are singing in the morning now, so I guess we aren't going to get it this year.

Pretty simple, but I just want to point out that this entire card was made with one stamp - the feather! I stamped the BG with it. I heat embossed three of the feathers with clear embossing powder for interest. (See 'em? They appear a bit darker in the photo. ) And I inked the stamp with orange and pink ink, stamped it onto scrap CS and fussy cut it before perching my sentiment on it. Sometimes it's fun to really limit yourself (and the supplies) to see how creative you can be!

So. Have a springy, stamped card to share with us? Head over to STAMPlorations and join the March challenge; you have until March 31. The winner gets two stamp sets and a guest designer gig. And this is the fabby prize up for grabs this month if you join the monthly and bi-weekly challenges...

(And remember, there's a pre-release 30% off sale going on right now on the MOM Subway stamp sets. Deets here.)

Thanks for coming by. Just saw today that my mini daffodils are blooming. Hope Spring is nearing in your corner of the world.

Have you been following the introduction of Volume 12 of Card Creations over at Plugged In with Paper Crafts and Scrapbooking? Well today I'm thrilled to be hopping with other designers to share some new creations and give away a copy of the magazine - one lucky winner will be chosen on each blog!

This issue is fully-loaded-sorted-by-occasion-and-full-of-new-ideas wunderbar. And the best part?... it's a hard copy! Shhh, don't tell anyone I said that.

We were asked to work with a sketch from the issue. So. I decided to use some trends (vellum, sequins, stencils) and a sentiment I love for its versatility (can be for all occasion, encouragement or even sympathy) along with the sketch:

I followed the sketch by laying down "mask" strips of scrap paper in a grid and misting over them with Turquoise and Sunflower Glimmer Mists. Then I dry embossed the vellum panel with the Flower Corner folder from Hobby Solution and turned the two into a shaker with sequins and a butterfly trapped between them. (TIP: Glue a few items down before completing your shaker so that not all fillers fall to the bottom.) Adhered that to the card front along with a PP strip on which I heat embossed my sentiment from STAMPlorations Trendy Feathers set.

I've got another card to share quickly. This was a by-product of the above card. I have a large sheet of contact paper backing in the box I use for misting. The excess mist beads up on it and I can spritz it with water to use to create a watercolor background. Like this.

I then applied Golden Glitz Delicata pigment ink through a stencil made from the Sizzix Bigz I Love You die and stamped "Mr and Mrs" over that.

So, back to the issue at hand. We luckies each get to give away a copy of Card Creations Vol 12 (a digi issue if you're international). Would you like to win it? Just leave me a comment before midnight EST on Monday, March 10.

Thursday, March 6, 2014

One of my favorite stamp sets out there is an oldie, but goodie from Paper Smooches, A Little Lovin' - don't ya just love the name alone? My favorite image is the snuggling elephants. And I reach for the "welcome baby" sentiment for nearly all baby cards I make, like here and here. Here's another one for ya.

Debossed the circle die into the card front as a frame. Stamped and paper pieced the elephants. Thought the dangling sentiment reminded a bit of a mobile which hangs in the nursery, and the circle shapes mimic the polka dots. Even added a strip of PP to the inside (note to self: why don't I do that more often?)

Happy that this happy card was published in the March 2014 issue of Paper Crafts and Scrapbooking in the Polka Dots for Baby feature. (And I'm sharin' a page with the one and only Jocelyn O. and one of her digi cuties.)

I'm playing at Paper Smooches Sparks where this week's theme is Anything Goes! Thanks for coming by. Come back tomorrow - there's a blog hop with giveaway coming your way...

I inked through the stencil with Shaded Lilac and a touch of Peacock Feathers Distress Inks. On PP from the Kiss My Neon 6x6 pad from Kesi Art I stamped a brushstroke from VIGNETTE: Chevron and Arrows before heat embossing my sentiment and then added some dots and coffee stains on the PP panel too. TIP: I find it difficult to do "generational stamping" with Distress Inks. Hard to get them to look soft if you know what I mean. Well, to ink 'em up I pounced on the solid stamps with my Distress Ink applicator which had some ink on it and voila! A softer image.

So what can you come up with for this sketch? Don't have to get stuck in the literal rut like me! Check out what the other DT members came up with. Join us for the Sketch #7 bi-weekly challenge and you might win three digital products from our sister shop, All about Scrapping.

Saturday, March 1, 2014

Welcome to springy Germany! Hope you are joining us today for the"With Appreciation"blog hop. We, who were the lucky winners of an amazing prize package in the World Card Making Day contest back in October 2013, have put this hop together to show our appreciation for all the goodies we received from generous manufacturers. If you want to learn more about the contest (check out the prizes) and start thinking about your card ideas for the 2014 contest, check out this post at Paper Crafts and Scrapbooking.

So many companies provided so much great product. We winners decided to make another card in the same category we won, using some products from the prize package. You should have arrived here from Lorraine M.'s blog. Be sure to hop along, not only are there great card ideas in all five WCMD card categories, there are some giveaways too!

I heat embossed the sentiment and also put a piece of PP on the inside and continued my sentiment... "on your birthday". It's difficult to see but I stamped the XOXO circle with white pigment ink on two punched circles and added them with foam adhesive for added interest. A few enamel dots finished the party.

So, would you like to win a couple goodies? I have the Spellbinders Captivating Squares dies and a Hero Arts Mint Julep ink pad to give away. And cuz I just had my second bloggiversary I'm adding a Summertime with Fibi and Lilly stamp set from The Craft's Meow too. I will pick a random winner on March 10. Here's what ya have to do. I love trying to pinpoint trends, for example I think the owl is gonna replace the fox; and the diamond the hexagon. Your turn. Tell me what you think the next hot trend in cardmaking is gonna be...

Now, hop on. If you started at Paper Crafts and Scrapbooking, great, if not you might want to check it out too. I heard there might be a prize!!! Now, over to Miss Meet-me-on-the-Corner-Of Miriam P. ya go. Enjoy. And thanks for hopping by.